A link on Facebook posted by my sister who lives in Alabama took me the web site of The Crimson White (CW), the University of Alabama’s student newspaper. Once at the site, I could hardly believe the title of the story that was staring me in the face in the Year of Our Lord 2013: “The Final Barrier: 50 years later, segregation still exists.”
In the story that starts with the quote “Are we really not going to talk about the black girl?”, Abbey Crain and Matt Ford of the CW staff report on how two black women who went through the University’s sororities recruitment process were not offered bids by those traditionally all-white sororities.
According to the CW, Alpha Gamma Delta member Melanie Gotz asked the question “Are we really not going to talk about the black girl?” during her chapter’s sorority recruitment. The CW continues: “[The question] was greeted by silence. The sorority’s active members and a few alumnae gathered in the room to hear the unexpected news that there would be no voting on potential new members that night. The chapter, they were told, had already agreed on which students would be invited back for the next round.”
However, Gotz and several of her sorority sisters “were far from satisfied” and wanted to discuss one potential new member in particular.
That potential new member, according to the CW, was someone who most universities would “consider a prime recruit for any organization, sorority or otherwise. She had a 4.3 GPA in high school, was salutatorian of her graduating class and comes from a family with deep roots in local and state public service and a direct link to The University of Alabama.”
The CW continues:
The recruit, who asked to remain anonymous, seemed like the perfect sorority pledge on paper, yet didn’t receive a bid from any of the 16 Panhellenic sororities during formal recruitment. Gotz and others said they know why: The recruit is black. She and at least one other black woman, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of personal safety, went through formal recruitment this year, but neither was offered a bid.
Like other black women before them, these two students tried to break what remains an almost impenetrable color barrier. Fifty years after Vivian Malone and James Hood became the first black students to desegregate The University of Alabama, there remains one last bastion of segregation on campus: The UA greek system is still almost completely divided along racial lines.
In a follow-up story on Sept. 16, the on-line Tuscaloosa News reports that one of the two black women in question is the granddaughter of UA System Trustee and Tuscaloosa County Circuit Judge John England Jr.
Gotz and several other sorority members contacted by the CW attributed the alleged discrimination to alumnae, rather than to the sorority members. Others contacted by the CW denied such.
Referring to “the black girl” at Alpha Gamma Delta’s recruitment, Gotz said, “It was just so cool to see everyone willing to take this next step and be the sorority that took a black girl and not care…You know, I would say there were probably five people in the room that disagreed with everything that was being said. The entire house wanted this girl to be in Alpha Gam. We were just powerless over the alums,” according to the CW
Regardless, Gotz’ words and the CW report drew state-wide and even national attention during a year when the nation remembers, 50 years ago, the governor of Alabama, George Wallace, standing in the doorway at that very same university attempting to enforce the infamous threat he issued in his inaugural address: “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”
Ms. Gotz’ words and the CW article indeed had an impact.
On Monday, September 16, the Tuscaloosa News reported:
The University of Alabama announced Monday that it is mandating a continuous open bid process for its sororities in an effort to increase diversity following reports by The Crimson White — UA’s student newspaper — last week that two black students were denied bids to traditionally white sororities because of their race.
The continuous open bidding process, which will begin immediately, allows the sororities to add new members outside of the formal recruitment process during the regular academic year, said UA Media Relations Director Cathy Andreen. The process traditionally allows sororities that have not reached their total chapter size during formal recruitment to pledge additional members.
[::]
[UA President Judy] Bonner said Friday that UA’s administration was working with the local sorority chapters and national organizations to make sure no barriers existed for students who wished to participate.
On Friday, the New York Times reported in a piece titled, “A Turnabout at Traditionally White Sororities, in Nine Days at Alabama”:
Nine days after the University of Alabama’s campus newspaper detailed chronic racial discrimination within the campus’s Greek system, the university’s president said on Friday that six minority students had accepted offers of admission to traditionally white sororities.
The announcement marked the first time since 2003 that those organizations said they had added minority students to their memberships. Other new minority members could follow, said the president, Judy L. Bonner.
Furthermore, Bonner said that the sororities had extended 72 bids this week to students, including 11 black women and the Times reports that “By Friday afternoon, six women who are minorities had agreed to join the sororities, including Halle Lindsay, who accepted an offer of admission from the Alpha Gamma Delta chapter in Tuscaloosa.”
Now, that is progress, real quick progress — overdue as it may be.
Thank you Ms. Gotz, thank you Crimson White and thank you, President Bonner. Nine days is not bad at all to set things right these days. Just take a look at the U.S. Congress…
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